BSocSc(Hons) MSocSc PhD Witwatersrand

Office: Rm 4.43, Leslie Social Sciences Building

Consultation Times:
(by appointment) 
Please email me in advance.

Using ethnography, my current research looks at the construction of gendered subjectivities of women mineworkers in a Platinum mine in the North West province. My broad research interests are: Labour studies, gender, labour and social movements, labour geographies, workplace identities, the extractives industry, human rights, social justice in mining communities and ethnography.

Recent Publications:

• 2018, “There is no change in Marikana: The perspective of women”, (eds), Maren Grimm, Jakob Krameritsch & Britta Becker. Business as Usual After Marikana: Corporate Power and Human Rights, Jacana, Johannesburg, (with Judy Seidman), pp 104-129, English translations. ISBN 978-1-928232-57-5

• 2018, “Es hat sich nichts verändert in Marikana: Die Situation aus der Perspektive der Frauen”, (Hg.) Britta Becker, Maren Grimm & Jakob Krameritsch. Zum Beispiel BASF: Über Knozernmacht und Menschenrechte, (und Judy Seidman), pp 108-133. German translation, ISBN 978385476-565-3, https://www.mandelbaum.at/buch.php?id=841  .

•Benya, Asanda and Yeni, Sthandiwe, 2018, Special Issue: Unpacking the Role of Women in Community Struggles, South African Labour Bulleting, Vol. 42, No. 2 (GUEST EDITOR)

• 2017, Women of the mines: apartheid and post-apartheid lived realities of South African women, Storia delle Donne, Vol 13,  pp 79-101, ISSN 1826-7505, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13128/SDD-23957 and http://fupress.net/index.php/sdd/article/view/23957

•2017. Going underground in South African platinum mines to explore women miners’ experiences, Gender & Development, 25:3, 509-522, DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2017.1379775  http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13552074.2017.1379775

• 2017. “Excluded while included: Women Mineworkers in South Africa’s Platinum Mines”, (eds), Glenda Bonifacio, Global Currents in Gender and Feminisms: Canadian and International Perspectives. Emerald Press, pp.169-180, ISBN: 9781787144842

•2015. “The Invisible Hands: women in Marikana”, Review of African Political Economy, Vol 42 No.146,pp.545-560,  DOI:10.1080/03056244.2015.1087394 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03056244.2015.1087394?needAccess=true

•2015. Women, Mining and Precariousness, Labour Capital and Society, TRAVAIL, capital et société, 48 1& 2, pp.68-91, http://www.lcs-tcs.com/PDFs/48_12/5%20-%20Benya.pdf

•2015. “Marikana: The Absence of Justice, Dignity and Freedom?”. Rodriguez-Garavito, C. Human Rights in Minefields: Extractive Economies, Environmental Conflicts and Social Justice in the Global South. Dejusticia Series. Ediciones Antropos, Bogota, Colombia http://www.dejusticia.org/files/r2_actividades_recursos/fi_name_recurso.752.pdf Chapter 9, pp 260-297

• 2015, “COSATU’s Demographic Profile”, The COSATU Worker’s Surveys of 2006 and 2012: What do they tell us?( with Ncube, Phumzile), pp. 13-26.

• Benya, Asanda. & Webster, Edward, 2013, “Dimensions of Informality: changing Workplace Relations in South African Platinum Belt,” Arbeit in Globaler Perspektive. Facetten Informeller Beschaftigung (Labour Policy in Global Perspective: Facets of Informal Employment), pp. 191-216.

http://www.campus.de/wissenschaft/politikwissenschaft/

Verschiedene+Politikfelder.40415.html/Arbeit+in+globaler+Perspektive.102655.html

2013, “Gendered Labour: A Challenge to Labour as a Democratizing Force,” Rethinking Development and Inequality, Vol. 2, Special Issue, pp. 47-62  http://www.andir-south.org/rdi/index.php/rdi/article/view/11

Other Publications

• Benya, Asanda. 2018, 24 Demands for every year the government has neglected women: reflections on the #TotalShutDown Movement in Cape Town: Amandla! Issue No. 60, October 2018, pp 12-13

• Benya, Asanda. 2018, “South Africa’s Underground Women Miners”, Africa’s Mineral Fortune, University of Chicago Press

• Benya, A., Tame, B., Chinguno, C, Jacobs, M., 2017, The Future of Work in South Africa: Work and Society. International Labour Organization. ISBN: 978-92-2-131420-2 (print), RSA

• Benya, Asanda. 2017, New labour federation and the gender question: Amandla! Issue No 53, July 2017.  pp 32- 33

•Benya, Asanda. 2017, New Union Federation Risks Failure if it Ignored a Gendered Reality, Business Day 19 May 2017.  https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2017-05-19-new-union-federation-risks-failure-if-it-ignored-a-gendered-reality/

• Benya, Asanda. 2017, Book Review, “The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa by Luke Sinwell and Siphiwe Mbatha (Pluto Press, 2016” Journal of Modern African Studies Vol. 55 No. 3 (533-535).

• Benya, Asanda. 2016, Gendered Navigations: Women in Mining, Review of African Political   Economy Blog, http://roape.net/2016/08/09/gendered-navigations-women-mining/

• Benya, Asanda. 2015, South Africa’s 21 Years of Democracy: Reflections on Living Conditions in Marikana. http://www.amphibiousaccounts.org/#!/publicacion/22

• Benya, Asanda. 2014, “South African Miners and the Underground Self,” Global Dialogue: International Sociological Association, Vol. 4 Issue1 (pp30-32) http://isa-global-dialogue.net/notes-from-the-field-south-africa-women-miners-and-the-underground-self/

• Benya, Asanda. 2013, “Absent from the frontline but not absent from the struggle: Women in the Marikana Massacre,” Femina Politica Vol. 22, Issue 1 (144-147)

• Benya, Asanda. 2013, Book Review, “Marikana: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer,” South African Labour Bulletin Vol. 37, No. 2 (22-23.)

• Benya, Asanda. 2012, “Unions Short-Changing Women,” South African Labour Bulletin. Vol. 36, Number 3 (17-18)

• Benya, Asanda. “Going Down to the Belly of the Beast,” Sunday Times: 23 May 2010, http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article463600.ece/Going-down-to-the-belly-of-the-beast 

• Molepo, Martha. Benya, A., Mqolomba, Z., Morobane, K., Sephiri, T., Ramulongo, T., 2011, An Investigation into the Nature of Employment Relationships in the South African Creative Industry, Labour Market Review, Department of Labour,  Government Printers Pretoria http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/documents/annual-reports/labour-market-review-report/2011/Labour%20Market%20Review_2012.pdf

• Benya, Asanda. 2009. “Women Face the Rock Face: What Challenges,” South African Labour Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 5 (5-7), (3 google scholar citation)

• Benya, Asanda. 2009. “If you Don’t Hear the Bell, You’re Mince: Woman’s Story of Mining Underground,” South African Labour Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 5 (7-9), (3 google scholar citation)

•  Benya, Asanda., Tsoeu, Mariane., Joynt, Katherine., Dilata, Xoliswa., Ngoepe, Kholofelo., Making the Invisible Visible, 2009, Labour Market Review, Department of Labour,  http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/documents/annual-reports/labour-market-review-report/2009/Labour%20Market%20Review.2009.pdf

• Webster, E., Benya, A., Dilata, X., Joynt, K., Ngoepe, K., Tsoeu, M., (2008), Making Visible the Invisible: Confronting South Africa’s Decent Work Deficit. SWOP, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

• Benya, Asanda. Dilati, Xoliswa., Joynt, Katherine., Ngoepe, Kholofelo., Tsoeu, Mariane, 2008, Conceptualising and Measuring the Informal Economy in South Africa: A Case Study of the Implementation of the Labour Force Survey (LFS 15), March 2007, SWOP.

•Benya, Asanda. & Mavuso, Ntombi. (2007), “Are Learnerships Effective in Combating Youth Unemployment?” South African Labour Bulletin, Vol. 32. No.2 (33-34)